Hampton Café Had Opportunities to Fix Things

The Hampton University administration seized the Oct. 22 issue of The Hampton Script because the student editors did not run a letter to the campus community from Acting President Dr. JoAnn W. Haysbert on the front page, as Haysbert requested. Instead, the letter appeared on Page 3. Haysbert's statement, which is linked to below, was a comment on the subject of this article, which appeared in the confiscated issue.

It didn’t have to get this far.

I remember vividly my first few days in the pre-college program at Hampton University. I would go to my two classes, do my homework and head to the café with my homegirls. The café and Ogden Hall’s front steps were the hot spots for us around lunch and dinnertime.

The café used to have the best slushies, ice cream and chicken tenders. And Sunday dinner seemed to be the best meal of the whole week.

I kept up this routine because you would eat dinner at a certain time to see your “boo,” the guy you were dying to get attention from.

At times the café seemed like a fashion show, with people wearing outfits they would wear to the club.

As my schedule got heavier, my visits to the café dwindled. I was so focused on schoolwork and extracurricular activities that I was forgetting to eat. So carryout and delivery became my best friends.

Here and there, I would hear about my peers' encounters with roaches and uncooked food. I can attest to the uncooked food situation. Finding out that your food is uncooked is not good when you’re hungry.

Not even 2 1/2 weeks into the semester, a friend told me to check out the infamous three-page report on inspection violations at the café. I was shocked, yet not surprised.

Being the curious yet nosy person that I am, I decided to check things out before I reacted. I continued to eat in the café before Hurricane Isabel hit Sept. 18, but the violations always stayed in the back of my mind.

When someone once again mentioned the violations, I finally decided to pay a visit to the Web Site listing the violations.

As I viewed the list, I became disgusted. I know that every student called his or her parents to notify them of the news. I called my mom and let her know that I wasn’t eating in the café. I informed her that I would need more money in my bank account, because I would really be depending on carryout, delivery and 99-cent menus. This gave me an excuse to eat what I really wanted.

The one thing that seriously bothered me was that this was the café’s fourth inspection in six months, and from what I was reading on the previous inspections, things started accumulating until they became critical. So I read this and wondered, “What is a critical violation?” I found out that it had reached the point where it could cause food-borne illnesses.

Now, I love to eat, but I refuse to eat in a place that isn’t up to sanitary standards. Spraying tables while people are still eating is disgusting. And the sight of any bug in an eatery is not worth eating in.

It didn’t have to get to the point where the café is on its third strike with the health department and newspapers and broadcasters are reporting on those violations. This could have been resolved in March with the first inspection. Since the café has passed inspection as of Oct. 17, I guess I’ll have more money in my pocket and will get back to eating the good ole’ meals in the café.

Bridget Jefferys is a student at Hampton University and the local and world editor of The Hampton Script.

Posted Oct. 23, 2003